Prisma received a ton of praise when it made its way onto Android due to how easy it was to apply a unique feature to make your photo fit into a certain style of art. The Pierra application from XDA Junior Member tech96 is quite similar as it too uses filters to make your photos look like art. The developer uses inspiring art styles from the likes of Picasso, Pierre, and da Vinci to transform your photographs. Pierra is completely advertisement free and doesn’t require an internet connection to use.
If you’ve ever been in a situation where you needed Internet access but had a weak data signal on your phone and/or didn’t know where to go for a Wi-Fi hotspot, then you’ll be happy to hear that Facebook is rolling out a new feature today that should be quite useful in these situations.
The new feature is called, “Find Wi-Fi”, and it works just like you’d expect. Built directly into the Facebook app itself, Find Wi-Fi shows a map of your surrounding area and which establishments have Wi-Fi hotspots or routers that you can connect to for free Internet access.
To access Find Wi-Fi within the Facebook app, simply tap on the “More” tab and then the option titled “Find Wi-Fi.” From here, you can choose to view the hotspots near you in a map or list setup, and then get directions to that business so you know exactly where to go.
Facebook pulls this data from information that businesses have shared on their Facebook pages, and it’s something that we can see being quite handy for those with weak cell reception in their area or for when you’re out traveling.
Find Wi-Fi was initially made available last year for a few countries across the globe, and we’re excited to see that the service was popular enough for a global release. The new feature is rolling out now to the Facebook app on both Android and iOS, so be sure to check the app to see if you’ve received it yet.
Earlier in the day, Project Fi’s official Twitter handle tweeted out that a new Fi-compatible device will be coming later this year from one of Google Fi’s partners. This device will be made available at a mid-tier price, bringing it within reach for a larger spectrum of potential users.
We hear you loud and clear. Keep an eye out for a new Fi-compatible device at a mid-tier price from one of our partners later this year. http://bit.ly/2soOKEz
After the revelation from Google, notable leaker Evan Blass is reporting through VentureBeat that this phone is none other than the upcoming Lenovo Moto X4.
The Lenovo Moto X4 is the next generation device in the widely acclaimed Moto X lineup. Moto’s X branded devices have held the distinction of being value purchases offering great performance on a budget-friendly price. The first Moto X invited skepticism from many who questioned its mid-tier specs, but were silenced when the sum of the experience turned out to be unparalleled in value at that time.
This generation of Moto X will have a few notable points of its own that we look forward to. The new Moto X4 will be the first non-Nexus and non-Pixel handset to offer Project Fi-compatibility. VentureBeat also confirms that the Moto X4 will come with a dual rear-camera setup. Marketing imagery from a Moto partner presentation also points towards the phone sporting a 5.2″ FHD display and “SmartCam” functionality.
With the Moto X4, Google’s Project Fi will finally be opening up to support hardware that is not associated with Google. New sign-ups to Project Fi is currently limited to the Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL, as the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P have remained out of stock for a while. Expanding Fi support to more devices will benefit users who are looking for a wider choice on the mobile network market, though they will have to wait until Q4 2017 at least.
We’ve seen Substratum used to theme a number of UI elements lately and now XDA Senior Member KpChuck has released one for the OnePlus 5 status bar clock. OxygenOS doesn’t let us customize the clock too much, but with K-Klock we can move the position of it, change its color, change the clock format, and change the clock font. The developer does recommend that you disable the stock clock through Settings or SystemUI tuner if you have chosen a custom clock format with K-Klock.
A widely circulating theory on the official OnePlus forums, Reddit’s /r/OnePlus, and our very own forums is now confirmed: OnePlus mounted the display panel upside-down on the OnePlus 5. While we have yet to directly link the display panel orientation as the cause of the odd jelly scrolling behavior some users have been encountering, the two appear to be undeniably correlated. In this article, we will attempt to summarize the jelly scrolling behavior and how it relates to the OnePlus 5’s display panel orientation so our readers can make an informed decision on their purchase.
OnePlus 5’s “Jelly” Scrolling Behavior
It has not been long since users received their brand new OnePlus 5 smartphones, but already many users were beginning to notice a peculiar screen effect when scrolling their screens. Dubbed by the community as the “jelly”-like scrolling effect, this effect causes the text on display to bunch up together and then stretch out when the user is swiping in the opposite direction. It’s a bit difficult to explain through text, but a widely-circulating video from The Verge’s Dan Seifert clearly demonstrates this behavior.
Note: the video shared by Mr. Seifert was originally hosted on his personal Google Photos account. However, it appears that link is no longer accessible, so I am linking a mirror hosted by a community member.
In response to user’s concerns over the matter, OnePlus issued what many see to be a rather bizarre statement in light of the findings:
The OnePlus 5 uses the same level of high-quality components as all OnePlus devices, including the AMOLED display. We’ve received feedback from a small number of users saying that at times they notice a subtle visual effect when scrolling. This is natural and there’s no variance in screens between devices.
Hence, the company claims that this issue is not the result of a manufacturing defect, Quality Assurance mishap, or software bug. Instead, the company implies this is an issue only seen by a small number of users (according to their feedback), but that it’s “natural” and not a result of different users having different screens.
Indeed, this scrolling behavior does not seem to be noticed by every owner of the OnePlus 5, but for those that do pick up on it – the effect can be quite jarring. To some, it is a deal-breaker. 9to5Google’s Stephen Hall and AndroidPolice’s Ryne Hager are just two out of many users I have seen express the desire to return their phone over the issue.
While some may say these are “overreactions” to what they feel are minor issues, ultimately the only opinion that matters in this case is your own. Does this scrolling effect bother you enough to turn you away from the phone? That’s a question you’ll have to grapple with yourself. OnePlus has already stated that users should not expect an OTA update or RMA to resolve the issue – which means users only have 15 days to decide what to do in response to this.
OnePlus 5’s Display Panel Orientation
Community members looking into the issue came up with two theories to explain what may be causing the behavior: VSYNC toggling or the display panel’s orientation. The former is a software issue while the latter is hardware related. While the VSYNC toggling theory was quickly dismissed, the OnePlus community seemed to be fixated on the potential that the OnePlus 5’s display panel was oriented upside-down. This claim was made because users began to notice that if the screen is inverted on many other smartphones, those other smartphones may also experience this same jelly-like scrolling effect. The manufacturer didn’t seem to matter – so long as the phone’s screen is inverted, some users could reproduce the issue on their other smartphones.
Though this explanation is fairly convincing, it lacked one crucial element: proof. No physical proof was given that the OnePlus 5’s display panel was mounted upside-down. During our initial reporting on this matter, we initially dismissed this claim partly for that reason. After the article was published, however, XDA Recognized Developer SultanXDA was able to do some more digging into the kernel source code and found incontrovertible proof that OnePlus did indeed orient the display panel upside-down:
This code is for the display controller and it clearly defines that the panel is oriented 180 degrees. According to SultanXDA, this is his first time seeing this code in an actual device. The documentation for this line actually exists in the display controller of other devices, but most other devices do not have the line present. We verified this by examining the display controller source code on the OnePlus One, OnePlus X, OnePlus 2, OnePlus 3/3T, Google Nexus 5X, Google Nexus 6P, and a few other smartphones to satisfy our curiosity.
Since the line is not present in the source code of these other devices, this means that the value is “null” by default, which means that the display controller’s default behavior is no flip compensation.
Another kernel developer, XDA Recognized Contributor eng.stk states that he also found evidence to confirm this is the case, as the display matrix on the OnePlus 5 is inverted when compared to the OnePlus 3T, which is addressed in the code he found. He was able to merge the OnePlus 5’s panel code and boot the OnePlus 3T with the code, resulting in the OnePlus 3T’s display becoming inverted.
And we can even correlate this physically through hardware teardowns as well.
Basically, the evidence is now undeniable: the OnePlus 5’s display panel is definitely mounted upside-down. What was once claimed based on circumstantial evidence is now proven. But what are the exact implications of this fact?
The Jelly-Like Scrolling Effect is “Natural”
And now we return to the statement issued to us yesterday by OnePlus. The claim that that the scrolling effect is “natural” and that there’s no “variance between devices” seems absurd on the surface, but now seems far more plausible in light of these new findings.
The correlation between the display panel orientation and the jelly scrolling behavior is very high. As mentioned previously, users are able to reproduce this effect on other smartphones by flipping their screens upside down before scrolling. Thus, if this effect can be reproduced on other smartphones by inverting the screen from its natural orientation, then it makes sense for this effect to occur on the OnePlus 5’s “natural”, upside-down orientation.
Hence, when OnePlus issued their carefully crafted PR statement – they were being truthful. It is “natural” for this to occur – a natural consequence of the display panel being oriented upside down. There is no variance between screens that causes the issue because every OnePlus 5’s display panel is mounted upside down. It could happen on any given OnePlus 5 smartphone. For now, it doesn’t appear that there’s any way to tell if your OnePlus 5 will be affected by this issue except trying to replicate it yourself.
While we don’t have an exact reasoning behind why flipping the display panel causes the effect, the best educated guess we can make is that it is related to what area of the screen is updated first and the latency involved in which screen contents are updated first.
Why Upside-Down?
Obviously, OnePlus deliberately chose to invert the screen panel while manufacturing the OnePlus 5 (remember – it’s not a “defect”!). This is not something that occurs by accident. Although we are not privvy to their exact reasoning, we can offer some speculation.
If you’ll take a look back at any of the thorough teardowns of the smartphone, you may notice that the display controller IC is located at the bottom. In order to compensate for the module’s placement, OnePlus flipped the display panel so the display cable would easily reach the motherboard and none of these components would interfere with other elements at the top of the device. But why would they need to do this all in the first place?
Take a look at what is placed at the top of the smartphone – the dual camera and some antennas. Like with any decision involving where to place components in a smartphone, it likely came down to space considerations. With limited space, the company had to decide where to place each component so everything would fit. Since the dual lens camera, which is new to the OnePlus line-up, takes up more space than a single lens camera it is possible the company moved the motherboard – and hence flipped the display panel – in order to accommodate the new camera module.
Conclusion
Of course as I mentioned before, the reasoning I have given for why the OnePlus 5’s display panel is inverted is just speculation on my part. OnePlus made the decision to place each component where they are for a reason. It just so happens that this decision may be behind the peculiar jelly scrolling effect some users are seeing on their phones. Perhaps the company made a gamble that not enough people would be bothered by it or notice it to raise a stink. Perhaps this is the reason why other manufacturers don’t orient their display panels upside down. It’s even possible OnePlus wasn’t fully aware of the consequences.
Whatever the cause, we hope that this article has given you a better understanding of the issue beyond OnePlus’s vague PR statement ,so you can make a decision for yourself what you want to do with your smartphone. I don’t personally believe this issue detracts from the other merits of the smartphone such as how well it performs and how developer friendly it is poised to be, but if the jelly scrolling issue is a deal-breaker for you then unfortunately you’ll either have to deal with it (if you notice it) or use the 15 day return window while it lasts.
P.S. Don’t believe everything you read from online support.
Google Home may not be perfect, but it has seen its fair share of updates and new features since its release back in the fall. One of the biggest additions has been multi-user support, and we’re expecting hands-free calling and the ability to send money through Google’s new payment API later this year.
Features like this really expand upon what Google Home is capable of, but one small, basic feature the product has been missing ever since its release is the ability to use it as a plain-old Bluetooth speaker.
Although you can send music and podcasts to the Google Home by casting specific apps to the smart speaker, this is considerably less convenient than simply being able to connect your phone to it via Bluetooth and have your tunes play through Google Home that way.
Finally, after nearly 8 months since its release, Google is allowing you to use the Google Home as a traditional Bluetooth speaker.
We don’t know what it took Google so long to make this feature available, but we’re certainly glad to see it be released. You can still choose to cast audio from your smartphone or tablet if you for some reason prefer digging around for the cast icon on a per app basis, but we think that most folks will gravitate towards the new Bluetooth implementation.
Some people are really keen on weather data from specific sources. We don’t generally get additional options in custom ROMs and even OEM firmware from the likes of Samsung, LG, and others. However, XDA Senior Member hiimpig1 has provided some plugins to let you use weather data from one of three different sources. So if you’re using LineageOS, or a custom ROM based on it, then you can change the weather provider to Yahoo, Weather Underground, or Open Weather Map.
The Honor 9 is the most exciting new phone that we have seen from Honor this year. While keeping true to the spirit of the Honor 8, by bringing back the 15 layered glass body, the Honor 9 also has many new features for us to explore.
Ergonomics
The look and feel of the Honor 9 is really what makes this different from the other flagships on the market. The back of the phone catches light in a way the makes reflections dance and warp, creating a really cool effect. This is something that Honor has put a lot of time into designing. With the updated design of the Honor 9, the back glass panel now curves towards the edge of the phone. This really brings together the look and feel of this device.
Camera Improvements
Fitted with both a 12MP and a 20MP sensor, the camera on the Honor 9 has really improved over the Honor 8. It’s also nice to see that we can shoot video in 4k resolution now. This feature was left out of the Honor 8.
Speed
With powerful internals like the Kirin 960 and up to 6GB of RAM, this phone is insanely fast. Because of Honor’s decision to stick with a 1080p resolution (much like the OnePlus 5) performance is not compromised by dedicating resources to a higher resolution display. Testing the speed of this phone side-by-side with phones like the Galaxy S8 and you might be surprised to find that the Honor 9 is faster in most cases.
Capacitive Nav Keys
You’ll get more screen space on the Honor 9 now that the nav keys have been pushed to the bottom of the phone. The home key doubles as the fingerprint sensor as well, leaving the back of the phone completely smooth and level. You can customize the capacitive keys to have the back button on the right or left.
IR Blaster
An IR blaster was included in this phone so you can use your device as a universal remote. This is something has has been around for a long time but is often left out of flagship phones. So fans of the IR blaster will be happy to find that their Honor 9 can control all of their remote controlled stuff.
Headphone Jack
Even though a select few devices have chosen to remove the headphone jack from their phones, Honor has chosen to stick with it. This is probably because of their new partnership with headphone manufacturer Monster, which they are using to launch several new headsets.
The new design of the Honor 9 features a curved back made with 15 layers of glass.
Improved cameras on the Honor 9 are fitted with 12MP and 20MP sensors.
Tell us what your favorite new feature of the Honor 9 is in the comments section.
Many have been watching as multiple companies are trying to make Android work as a desktop platform. We’ve talked about Remix OS extensively in the past, but their project started as a standalone piece of software that you would install on PC hardware. Earlier this year though, they announced Remix Singularity and this is a popular trend that we’re seeing with the market lately. Companies want you to connect your smartphone to a monitor and use it as a desktop PC.
The company just published a blog post that talks about what type of progress they’ve made over the last year. They’ve had 10 different releases which improved stability, transitioned to Marshmallow, allowed Maru Desktop to start in the background, added encryption support and more. Maru OS still only supports the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 2013 Wi-Fi, but then confirm they have early community builds available for the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P.
They also talk about where they’d like to take Maru OS in the future. Touching on adding support for more devices, enabling wireless display streaming, desktop graphics acceleration, desktop audio, OTA updates and more. The developers are aware that some areas need to be worked on to make it more developer friendly too. Saying they would like to improve the documentation, add in some more automated testing, and then transition from point releases to a fully-automated, continuous release cycle including nightly or weekly builds.
If you own a Pixel/Pixel XL, Nexus 5X, or Nexus 6P, there’s a fairly good chance that you use that handset with Google’s own Project Fi phone service. Ever since its launch back in 2015, Project Fi has been locked down to only officially support Nexus and Pixel-branded smartphones, and according to a tweet from the official Project Fi Twitter account, it looks like the service will soon be expanding its product lineup.
After one Twitter user tweeted Project Fi and said that they were being forced to leave the service following the result of their Nexus 5X dying and there not being enough device choice in Fi’s lineup, the Project Fi account then responded with the following message:
We hear you loud and clear. Keep an eye out for a new Fi-compatible device at a mid-tier price from one of our partners later this year. http://bit.ly/2soOKEz
Google hasn’t hinted at any new Project Fi-compatible smartphones up until this point, so we really aren’t all that sure what to expect. Right now, there are two possibilities to look forward to.
One, Google is simply opening up Project Fi and will soon allow third-parties to make hardware that’s officially supported by the service. Two, there’s some sort of mid-range Pixel smartphone in the works that could be announced alongside the Pixel 2 later this fall.
Both potential outcomes are great for Project Fi, and although we aren’t sure what the likelihood is for a mid-tier Pixel smartphone, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t at least a little intrigued as to what that would look like. One of the biggest complaints for the Pixel and Pixel XL were their high price tags, so if Google could release a more competitively priced version of the Pixel for Project Fi, we have a feeling that something along those lines would sell incredibly well.
Yesterday, we published an article about a peculiar issue some OnePlus 5 owners were reportedly having: a jelly-like scrolling effect. We informed you of the various theories that were circulating around the web as to what may have been causing this issue, and we notified OnePlus regarding the issue so they could take a look into it. Now, the company has issued a statement to us regarding the jelly scrolling effect that reads:
The OnePlus 5 uses the same level of high-quality components as all OnePlus devices, including the AMOLED display. We’ve received feedback from a small number of users saying that at times they notice a subtle visual effect when scrolling. This is natural and there’s no variance in screens between devices.
Thus, the company is claiming that this scrolling behavior is not at all a symptom of a defective product. OnePlus would like to stress that this scrolling effect people are seeing is “not a QA or manufacturing defect” , and thus people should not expect an OTA update to resolve what they may be seeing, nor contact customer service for a replacement device.
In a teardown of the OnePlus 5 by YouTuber JerryRigEverything, we can see that the components of the OnePlus 5 are positioned on the bottom of the device.
Given this placement, it makes sense that the scrolling effect people are seeing is “natural” if it’s indeed caused by the placement of these modules. This does not mean that the display is mounted “upside-down” as some have suggested (meaning, this isn’t a QA issue), but rather this is because of the way the company chose to allocate the components, presumably because of the component crunch at the top caused by their choice of a dual-camera setup (though this is speculation).
LG’s V line of flagship smartphones is arguably one of the company’s most innovative creations, with phones that are unafraid to stick to removable batteries, durable construction, or play around with other hardware concepts.
One such feature that is arguably the defining feature of the LG V line is the inclusion of a secondary display – a small additional panel that resides at the top-right of the regular display. This secondary display enhances the device’s ability to display key content such as notifications and shortcuts without interfering with the rest of the UX. It’s a nice way to save screen real-estate and it has allowed for good heads-up information tickers, frequently used app shortcuts, a permanent clock, and other screen-off features. Having it separate from the main display for screen-off content was beneficial given LG’s use of LCD displays which cannot light up individual pixels like AMOLED panels for efficient display of content on pure-black backgrounds, something that is crucial for use in ambient or always-on-display modes.
While the secondary display certainly gave the V10 and V20 a bit of personality and uniqueness (up until HTC’s recent adoption of such a feature with the U Ultra, at least), that trend will not be continuing. According to a trusted source, the upcoming LG V30 will be ditching the secondary display.
On top of that, our source claims that the LG V30 will feature an OLED panel, which falls in line with many news reports we’ve been hearing about LG Display’sinvestments in the face of an increasing demand for OLED smartphone displays, as well as a recent report from The Investor which suggested this would be the case. LG’s flagships have typically featured excellent LCD panels meant to showcase the company’s engineering prowess, similarly to how Samsung adopts the best and latest AMOLED panels it creates for its own Galaxy flagships, so we would expect LG’s latest flagship to showcase the fruits of their latest investments.
While we don’t know precisely why the company is moving away from such an iconic aspect of their lineup, it is possible that LG will adopt an 18:9 aspect ratio on this new device like they did with the LG G6, which would in part make the addition of a secondary display redundant. The device could thus have a taller screen with additional screen area at the same width, gaining some of the benefits of the old secondary display. This wouldn’t be unexpected given that LG seems quite committed to this aspect ratio, something we learned in our trip to South Korea for the launch of the LG G6 where LG repeatedly told us it was “the future” of smartphone displays. Admittedly, the inclusion of an 18:9 aspect ratio is speculation on our part and not something that our source confirmed to us, so it’s still possible we’ll see a more traditionally proportioned display.
Finally, the same source has confirmed a few additional details about this device: it should launch with a Snapdragon 835 SoC with 4GB of RAM, there will be a variant with 64GB of storage, and the device will also retain a microSD card slot for storage expansion. In most other aspects, the device can be summarized as a larger version of the existing LG G6 flagship smartphone. The rest of these specifications should come as no surprise given the expected timeframe in which this phone is to be released.
These leaks mostly fall in line with other leaks and rumors, though none of it necessarily confirms our dreams of seeing LG’s “Project Joan” come to life — now that was innovation in smartphone displays.
Back on June 2nd, Lenovo-owned Motorola officially announced the Moto Z2 Play as the direct successor to the 2016 sleeper hit that was the Moto Z Play. Now, the Z2 Play is available for purchase through Verizon Wireless, and it’s packing a pretty decent punch at a relatively low cost.
On the very front of the Z2 Play is a 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 AMOLED display, and powering the phone is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 626 processor, and a respectable 3GBs of RAM. Move to the back, and you’ll find a single 12MP camera with an f/1.7 aperture.
One of the highlights of last year’s Z Play was its phenomenal battery life, but this is one area where the Z2 Play is seemingly taking a step backwards. Whereas the original Z Play packed a massive 3,510 mAh battery, this year’s model only features a 3,000 mAh unit. That’s quite a bit smaller in regards to raw battery capacity, but Motorola is still claiming that the Z2 Play will be able to get up to 30-hours of use on a single charge. We’d like to believe Motorola here, but even if the Z2 Play manages to offer battery performance close to what last year’s model accomplished, we would have much rather preferred the company stick with a larger battery capacity instead of going with a super-slim 5.99-millimeter design.
Back to the good stuff, the Z2 Play is running Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box with a relatively close-to-stock Android look with a few small, useful software additions thrown in.
You can buy the Moto Z2 Play from Verizon starting today, and whether you choose to pay for the phone outright or go month-to-month at $17/month, you’ll also get a free JBL SoundBoost Moto Mod thrown in for no extra charge.
If you’re interested in the Moto Z2 Play but aren’t with Verizon, you’ll be able to purchase the GSM unlocked variant directly through Motorola later this summer for $499.
Nova Launcher has remained as the top launcher in the Google Play Store for quite some time, but that doesn’t mean it’s completely unbeatable.
Action Launcher recently received one its largest updates ever, and with a host of new settings and features to play around with, does Action finally have what it takes to bring down the king that is Nova?
Over the years, the Google Play Store has seen some big updates and improvements. between UI refreshes, functionality changes, and more. We’ve come a long, long way since the early days of the Android Marketplace.
In honor of Summer 2017 officially being underway, Google is launching the first ever site-wide sale on the Google Play Store. We’ve seen individual developers offer their own discounts here and there, but this is the first time that Google has ever slashed prices across the board.
So, just what can you pick up from Google Play during this sale?
Apps/Games
Apps and games are the meat and potatoes of the Google Play Store, and as such, this is where some of the most enticing deals lie.
Looking at apps first, Google is offering a $10 Play credit with the purchase of a 1-year subscription to MyFitnessPal’s Calorie Counter, and 50% off recurring memberships to The New York Times, TuneInRadio, and Runtastic.
On the gaming side of things, Google is offering up to 80% off what it calls, “premium games”, and some of the most noteworthy additions here include Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies ($1.99 down from $6.99), Star Wars: KOTOR ($2.99 down from $9.99), Final Fantasy Tactics ($5.99 down from $11.99), Reigns ($0.99 down from $2.99), and plenty of others.
Movies/TV Shows
If you’d rather sit back and watch a show rather than playing a game, Google has you covered here too. Between now and July 13, you can rent any movie that you’d like in HD quality for just $0.99. Whether you want to rewatch a classic like, National Lampoon’s Vacation, or catch a more recent flick, such as Kong: Skull Island, this is an awesome deal to take advantage of as you now have no excuse to not start thinning out that watch list you’ve built up over the years.
As for TV shows, you can get episodes of Silicon Valley, Gotham, The Flash and more for just $0.99 each.
Music
Google Play Music is my preferred platform of choice for listening to music and podcasts, and if you aren’t a subscriber just quite yet but have been meaning to check it out, now is the best time ever. New Google Play Music customers can get 4 months of streaming free of cost, and whether or not you plan on paying for the service after those 4 months are up, you might as well take advantage of the deal while you can and get some free tunes for the summer months.
Books
Last but not least, Google also has steep discounts on a wide selection of e-books. In addition to offering 50-80% savings on a wide selection of titles, Google is also offering a $5 Play credit for any book you purchase that costs $5 or more.
While the discounts on movies and TV shows last through July 13, everything else is only on sale until July 6. This is a fantastic way to grab some new stuff from the Play Store that you’ve been meaning to get but never got around to doing, and we absolutely hope that this is something Google brings back in the future rather than letting it be a one-time thing.
Smartphones can be used for a lot of different functions with many people using older phones as dash cams, dedicated music players, etc. Developer Aiuspaktyn recently published an application called Auto Recorder to XDA Labs that will start and stop recording audio when it reaches and drops below certain levels. This can even let you use your current phone as a voice operated switch, also known as VOX or Voice Operated eXchange. The base Auto Recorder app is free but the pro version comes with additional features.
Auto Recorder Pro Features
– Smart Voice-activated Spy recording.
– Mic calibration recorder.
– Stopping recording automatically.
– Live audio spectrum analyzer.
– Unlimited recording time.
– Date-based naming.
– Background recording (You can open other app while recording, even when display is off).
– Built-in share memo (Bluetooth, Drive, Dropbox, Email, Gmail, WhatsApp, etc.).
– Audio files .wav (3GP, AMR, MP4) export over the USB.
– Supports any OS (Linux, Mac OS, Windows, etc.) to playback using VLC.
– Landscape and portrait display modes support for Tablet.
– Show free space.
– Can set WAVE format (3GP, AMR, MP4).
– Can use the rear microphone.
– Can increase microphone volume.
– Can delete older records if you are running out of storage space.
– Can set the sampling frequency (kHz).
Today, Sony has confirmed that it’s officially stopped the Android 7.0 Nougat update for both the Xperia XA and XA Ultra. The update was released a little more than a week ago, but users were quick to report that they weren’t seeing the update on their devices.
According to Sony, the update has temporarily been put on hold as a result of, “minor performance inconsistencies related to the over-the-air delivery system.” Sony went on to say that users who have already downloaded the update shouldn’t have any major issues, but that a new and improved version will be coming soon.
While nice to see that Sony is correcting this problem, we didn’t notice any such issues with the update that we received to our own Xperia XA Ultra. In fact, the update enhanced the overall performance of the phone quite a bit and made it much more enjoyable to use. It’s not know how wide-spread these minor performance issues were, but it must have been big enough of a deal for Sony to put a temporary pause on the update’s rollout.
The official statement from Sony can be found below, and here’s to hoping we won’t have to wait too long for Android 7.0 Nougat to start making its way to XA and XA Ultra once more.
“We’ve temporarily paused the Android 7.0 upgrade for Xperia XA and Xperia XA Ultra due to minor performance inconsistencies related to the over-the-air delivery system. Regardless of whether a user has been able to successfully run the upgrade or not, there is no detrimental impact on device performance or loss of existing user data. We’re aiming to re-commence the rollout as soon as possible with a seamless upgrade experience for all users, and will provide a further update in due course.”
If you have a Huawei smartphone or tablet that is running Android 6.0+, then XDA Senior Member millo1978 has a collection of guides that just may interest you. First they go and show how to modify Huawei APKs and provides tools and some tips for how to do that. Then they have specific guides for how to hide and show a toggle that displays virtual buttons in the navigation bar, another guide shows how to enable a rotation toggle and a 5×5 layout in the Huawei launcher, and then the last one lets you show all music players on the lock screen.
Just like how Google has the Google Play Console for developers who want to manage their assets which are listed in the Play Store, the Android Things Console will serve a similar function. The company has just announced there is a developer preview available for Android Things, so you should expect it to be fully fleshed out right now. In a blog post published to the Android Developers Blog yesterday, Google gave us a tour of what we can expect from this initial release.
There are a couple of main functions to the Android Things Console right now and that involves creating factory images as well as updating both the OS and APKs which have been provided by the developer. In the blog post, Google teased an upcoming update to Android Things (Developer Preview 5) and says that IoT devices will need to run system images downloaded from the Android Things Console so they can receive future updates (like the upcoming Android Things Developer Preview 5).
From the Android Things Console, developers will be able to create a project, manage the settings of the project (such as a name, SoM name, Google Play Services, etc.). Once you have installed the initial firmware onto your IoT device, you’ll be able to upload a bundle (which includes APKs, user space drivers and more) directly to the Android Things Console and it can then be deployed to your IoT devices. You’ll even be able to manage and deploy OTA updates from this new console as well.
It’s been a little over a week since OnePlus officially launched its latest flagship smartphone – the OnePlus 5. The device is currently the most powerful Android smartphone on the market with an upgraded Snapdragon 835 SoC, 8GBs of RAM, and UFS 2.1 with two-lane ROM. But compared to its predecessor, the OnePlus 3T, the OnePlus 5’s display does not seem to be a marked improvement on the surface. Both devices feature a 5.5″ 1080p AMOLED display at ~401ppi, but by default the OnePlus 5 features the DCI-P3 wide color gamut which is the same color gamut found in 4K Ultra High-Definition televisions and Digital Cinema.
Other than the OnePlus 5, there are other smartphones that support DCI-P3 like LG flagship devices (though apparently, not very accurately), the now-defunct Samsung Galaxy Note 7, the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+, and the iPhone 7. However, there appears to be another smartphone that may support the DCI-P3 wide color gamut – the OnePlus 3T. Soon after the OnePlus 5 was officially announced, it was discovered that the display model found in the OnePlus 5 is actually the same display found in the OnePlus 3T. In particular, Roland Quandt (@rquandt) used AIDA64 to discover that the OnePlus 5 uses the Samsung S6E3FA5 display (for reference, OnePlus 3T devices feature either the aforementioned Samsung S6E3FA5 or S6E3FA3 displays).
That discovery got the ball rolling, and several Chinese OnePlus users began digging into kernel related files located in the /sys directory to see if they could find a way to enable DCI-P3 on the OnePlus 3T. Sure enough, located within the /sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fb0 directory are 3 files that can be modified to change the screen mode. These files are the following:
/sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fb0/SRGB
/sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fb0/Adobe_RBG
/sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fb0/DCI_P3
By writing a value of ‘1’ to the DCI_P3 file (which requires root access), the color mode can be enabled on the OnePlus 3T. After muchdiscussion on the OnePlus BBS forums, it was discovered that this trick only works on OnePlus 3T devices with the Samsung S6E3FA5 display. If your OnePlus 3T is rooted and has the right display model, then you can enable the OnePlus 5’s awesome display mode right now.
Here is a step-by-step set of instructions to enable this color gamut mode. Note that this only works on rooted phones:
Verify that your display panel is compatible. Install AIDA64 and check Display –> Panel ID. If it reads “samsung s6e3fa5 1080p cmd mode dsi panel”, then your device’s display is compatible with this mode.
AIDA64 Panel ID Value for the OnePlus 3T. Note: this is the incorrect model. (Credits: soccerwuedo5).
Alternatively, you can download a file browser such as MiXplorer and browse to the /sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fb0 directory. If you see a “DCI-P3” file, then your model is compatible.
Install Terminal Emulator on your phone and enter the following two commands:
su
echo 1 > /sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fb0/DCI_P3
The change will take affect immediately, but the screen mode in settings will not be updated to reflect this change. Furthermore, if you reboot the device, the calibration will revert back to the “default” state. If you would like to revert these changes immediately, you can enter the following commands:
su
echo 0 > /sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fb0/DCI_P3
If you are looking for a way to have this change persist through reboots, you can use automation software such as Tasker, create an init.d script, or use this Magisk module created by XDA Senior Member doubleaykay.
How well does it work?
Once enabled, there is an immediate, noticeable difference in the screen quality. There’s a clear saturation loss when changing the calibration mode to DCI-P3, and the change is noticeable no matter what screen mode you have enabled, which indicates the profile is different than the default or sRGB modes. Although in our own subjective comparison, Mario Serrafero notes that enabling DCI-P3 on the OnePlus 3T does not result in an identical display compared to the OnePlus 5’s DCI-P3. Notably, yellows and blues appear to be a tad more saturated on the OnePlus 3T, and they slightly differ in temperature throughout as well. While the unofficial display calibration mode change does not perfectly match any of the available modes on the OnePlus 5, it appears to be closest to DCI-P3. A deeper display analysis could determine exactly what the difference is and how accurate this new color profile is.
Overall, we definitely feel the modification is definitely worth doing, if only to try it out and check whether you like the different display profile.
Was DCI-P3 Intentionally Disabled?
According to users on the OnePlusBBS forums, the preference to enable DCI-P3 on the OnePlus 3T is hidden from the settings application. Apparently, there is a “OPScreenColorMode.java” file that contains a line removing the preference from settings.
By editing this line, recompiling the APK, and pushing the updated system file to the device, the preference is indeed made available in the settings app.
This isn’t really unexpected, though OnePlus repeatedly claimed that Reading Mode makes use of a different ambient sensor to read not just ambient light intensity, but also tone, and thus it would make sense for the feature to be offered exclusively on the OnePlus 5. The existence of this string does indicate that it may be possible for the feature to be added to the OnePlus 3T in a future OxygenOS release, if not sooner thanks to modders on our forums, but if there is hardware at play it might perform differently than the OnePlus 5.
Conclusion
We can’t speak for OnePlus as to why this display calibration modification is possible on the OnePlus 3T, but we have reached out to the company and will update our readers when we hear back. In the meantime, for any rooted OnePlus 3T owners – definitely give this modification a shot if your display is compatible.
Twitch is the go-to platform for hosting and viewing video game streams of all kinds (though lately the IRL/Creative categories have also exploded in popularity), and the official Android app for the service is now getting one of the biggest updates its ever seen.
There are a host of new features coming to the app including both aesthetic and functional changes. One new addition that users have been requesting for a while now is a dark mode that will make the app easier on the eyes at night and look absolutely killer on any device with an AMOLED panel. There’s also a new navigation bar at the bottom of the app offering easy access for finding current live streams, accessing the Pulse section of the service, and browsing all of the content that Twitch has to offer. Add this together with new swipe gestures for better navigating the UI and streamlined notifications between the mobile and desktop apps, and there’s already a lot to love here.
However, as great as all of this is, perhaps the biggest change is that you can now start a live stream directly from your Android phone or tablet. The new feature is aptly named, “Mobile Streaming”, and it will likely be a great way to let Twitch streamers stay in touch with their fans when they’re away from the keyboard throughout the day.
In addition to all of this, some other new features coming with this update include the ability to organize streams based on what region they’re coming from or what language the streamer speaks and Instant Playlists that offer “a collection of content accessible by swiping down on the screen.”
The update for the Twitch mobile app is starting to make its way to users on both Android and iOS now, and Twitch says that everyone should have access to it in early July.
Google announced a lot of stuff at this year’s I/O, and among all of the buzz surrounding Android O, Google Lens, and Daydream, the company also introduced some new sharing features in Google Photos that takes advantage of the company’s machine learning technology.
Today, Google is finally releasing some of those new features to the public. Version 3.0 of the Google Photos app is rolling out on the Play Store starting today.
There are two new sharing options being added to Google Photos – the first is Suggested Sharing. Suggested Sharing uses Google’s machine learning to recommend photos that it thinks you should share with certain people based on who is in the photos, where certain pictures or videos were captured, and who was with you at that time.
All of these suggestions can be found in the Sharing tab at the bottom right of the app, and this is where you’ll see not only suggested photos that Google thinks you should send to other people, but also any albums or other photos/videos that you’ve shared or others have shared with you.
Along with Suggested Sharing, the other big feature in this update are Shared Libraries. With Shared Libraries, you can choose someone to share either your entire Google Photos collection with or just a specific album. One potential use case here is for a husband and wife to share an album with one another that contains photos of their kid.
While you could just choose to manually share new photos with people as you take them, the cool part about Shared Albums is that they’re updated for both parties whenever you take a new photo that belongs in that album. The husband could take a few photos of his child, Google will know that those are pictures of his kid, and then automatically add those photos to the Shared Album that the wife also has access to.
Both Suggested Sharing and Shared Albums should be available either now or within the next couple of days for Google Photos users on Android, web, and iOS.
In the past few months, Google has suffered a series of setbacks due to litigation. Most recently, the company was hit with a whopping €2.42 billion fine after the European Commission ruled that Google was violating EU anti-trust regulations by inflating their own shopping service results in Google search pages. Back in mid-April, Google suffered another blow when the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) ruled that the company was violating its market dominance by essentially forcing OEMs to pre-install Google services on their devices. Part of the company’s settlement with the FAS involved creating a new Google Chrome search widget that can replace the default Google search widget.
In doing so, users can then change their default search provider in Chrome’s settings so that this new widget can quickly access any third-party search engine provider. Users first started to notice this new search widget in early May as it rolled out to the Chrome Dev and Canary channels, but per the settlement with FAS this widget only fulfills part of the agreement with the Russian government.
For the devices that are currently circulating on the Russian market, Google will develop an active “choice window” for the Chrome browser which at the time of the next update will provide the user with the opportunity to choose their default search engine.
Within a few months, Google will develop for new devices a new Chrome widget that will replace the standard Google search widget on the home screen. This will allow end users of the devices based on the Android OS with the GMS package to see the new “choice screen” at the first launch of the new Chrome widget. This choice screen enables users to choose Yandex search or Google search or any other search engine of those developers who will sign a commercial agreement on their inclusion to the choice screen.
Changing the device’s locale to Russian, wiping Chrome Canary’s data, and adding the search widget has not yet yielded the promised search engine “choice screen” that Russia requires from Google. But according to a recent commit to the Chromium open source project, that may soon change.
The commit enables the “search engine promo” by default – a flag which will show a promotion dialog about enabling other search engines depending on your locale. Chrome’s LocaleManager details what Chrome will do when the device is determined to be in a “special locale” (though interestingly enough, I haven’t been able to find exactly which locales are deemed to be “special”).
There are 4 different states that Chrome determines the user to be in – “don’t show”, “new”, “existing”, and “sogou.” “Don’t show” clearly means that the user should not be shown a search engine promotion dialog as they are not located within a special locale. The “new” state means that user is setting up Chrome for the first time, so the browser will show the DefaultSearchEngineFirstRunFragment that provides a layout of available search engines to choose from on first launch. “Existing” refers to users already using Chrome, which will call the DefaultSearchEnginePromoDialog method to force users to choose a default search engine from a provided list. The dialog is not cancellable and cannot be bypassed. Finally, and what I believe to be the most interesting, is the “sogou” state. Presumably if installed in China, Google Chrome will set the default search engine provider to be Sogou – China’s second largest search provider.
The SpecialLocaleHandler determines whether or not to set Google search as the default search provider based on Locale. The DefaultSearchEngineDialogHelper method handles listing which search providers will be listed once called. Interestingly, there’s a routine within this method that quite literally shuffles the search engine list in random order, presumably so that which provider is listed at the top of the list is totally random.
Although this search engine promotion dialog will currently only be shown in China and Russia, we wouldn’t be surprised if users in the European Union will start to see this in the future. Especially since the EU and Google are embroiled in ongoing litigation about Google applications being pre-installed on Android devices – a practice which the Russian FAS already ruled to be anti-competitive. If Google were to lose the Android case in the EU, then this search engine promotion dialog may become the rule rather than the exception.
Despite the fact that we’re expecting Android O to be officially released within the next three months, there are still plenty of Android devices out there that are not running the latest version of the OS (Android 7.1).
Google and other OEMs have gotten better and better over the years at making sure all current flagship models stay as up-to-date as quickly as possible, and the latest batch of Android devices to get updated to Android Nougat comes from Sony.
In this latest wave of updates, Sony bumped up the Xperia Z3+, Z4 Tablet, Z5 Compact, and Z5 Premium to Android 7.1.1. The build number for these devices are all changing from 32.3.A.2.33 up to 32.4.A.0.160, and along with the new Android version, all four of these gadgets are also receiving the latest June 1, 2017 Android security patch.
Prior to this latest wave of updates, the last Sony handset to get the Android Nougat update was the Xperia XA Ultra. Although that phone was only updated to Nougat 7.0, the new software brought a serious performance boost and made using the handset considerably more enjoyable.
Assuming these other Sony devices see a similar boost in speed along with the regular host of Nougat features, Xperia users could be in for a real treat with this latest software release.
With the release of any new smartphone, we quite frequently receive reports about potential hardware or software issues that the Quality Assurance (QA) team may have missed. This occurs because issues that may be present in a small batch of smartphones might not be picked up until the phone is more widely available, as it is impossible for QA to catch every potential issue prior to release (though intelligent sampling of production devices often mitigates this issue). One such issue that is cropping up all over the OnePlus 5 forums on XDA, Reddit, and the official OnePlus forums is what users are calling the jelly scrolling effect.
Rather than attempt to explain what it is I am talking about, I’ll let a quick video do the talking (via /u/Ready2Feed). If you aren’t seeing it in that video, how about another one from YouTuber Damir Franco?
If you still don’t see what I’m talking about, look for when the screen is being scrolled more slowly – text bunches up together and stretches when you swipe the other way making it appears as if part of the screen is not being refreshed as quickly as others. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
But if you try and replicate this issue on your own shiny, brand new OnePlus 5 – you may not notice it happen. The issue does not appear to universally affect each OnePlus 5 device, and there so far is no way to tell if your device will be affected by this besides actually attempting to replicate it yourself. In fact, we have yet to encounter this issue on our own review device, but have been told that a few reviewers (such as Damir Franc as linked above) have experienced this issue.
What is behind this issue?
A few theories have been thrown around.
First, a user on our forums noticed that Vertical Sync (VSYNC) was constantly being toggled on/off. An explanation of what VSYNC does in Android is beyond the scope of this article, but briefly it’s a method for the frame rate to be capped at the display refresh rate of the device (typically 60 Hz). I asked XDA Recognized Developer SultanXDA what he thought of this explanation, but he believes this is unlikely to be the cause of the jelly scrolling effect. According to him, VSYNC appears to be toggled when nothing on the screen is currently animating, hence there is no need for VSYNC to be active. He believes this is normal behavior unrelated to the OnePlus 5 jelly scrolling effect.
Second, and the more commonly put forward explanation, is the idea that the OnePlus 5 display is mounted upside down. Users are pointing out that when holding any other phone upside down that they can then see the same jelly scrolling effect on those devices – hence the fact that this effect occurs on the OnePlus 5 in its natural orientation suggests that the display is mounted incorrectly. Some users believe that this issue occurs because of the way the screen refreshes with respect to the display mounting orientation. I again approached SultanXDA to see what he thinks of this explanation, and he isn’t convinced that this is the issue. According to him, the video controller drivers in the kernel should be able to compensate for any display mount angle. If indeed the panel was mounted upside down and the video controller was not set up properly, the display would look “totally wacky.”
Instead, it may just be a boring software bug. SultanXDA is open to the possibility that he’s wrong, but at the very least the two above explanations put forward by the OnePlus community should not be taken as gospel.
Should you return your OnePlus 5?
Many users are crying foul and suggesting others immediately RMA their phone if they encounter this issue. To be fair, a consumer has every right to be concerned about the display given that they’ve paid hundreds for this brand new phone. However, given the opinion of SultanXDA, if it is indeed merely a boring software bug, then that means this is something that OnePlus can fix in a routine software update.
We have already reached out to OnePlus about this issue and can confirm that the company is looking into it. We do not have any information from OnePlus about what they believe is causing this issue on certain devices, nor do we know what plan of action they are to take. We hope to have that answer soon for those of our readers suffering from this issue.
P.S. don’t believe everything you read from online support. Not to throw them under the bus, but they often don’t have access to the same quality of information as PR representatives. We were told by our PR contact that the information posted in that thread is at the very least inaccurate.
The next big release in the Android world is likely to be the next iteration of one of Samsung’s most prolific (and lately controversial) lineup: the Note series. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has to shoulder the responsibility of repairing the “Note” brand and Samsung plans to do just that by giving us a phone to truly watch out for.
Notable leaker @OnLeaks, in collaboration with 91mobiles, has released 360° video renders of the Note 8, giving us a very good look at what to expect from the next Note.
The main talking point of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will be its dual rear camera setup. This will allegedly be the second device from Samsung to come with two cameras on the back, with the first device being the rumored and upcoming Galaxy C10. The dual cameras will be placed horizontally and are said to sport independent optical image stabilization. The device will reportedly measure 162.4 x 74.5 x 8.4mm while the thickness will ramp up to 9.5mm at the camera bump. Aside from the dual rear cameras, the camera bump will also house the fingerprint scanner.
The renders also show that the Note 8 will continue with Samsung’s dual curved edge Infinity Display design as seen on the Galaxy S8 and S8+. Other elements of the device like the SPen, the USB Type-C port, and even the 3.5mm headphone jack are visible in the renders.
From the renders so far, the Note 8 appears more box-like with its more pronounced edges, as opposed to the S8 and S8+ which had a more curved design all around. The display on the Note 8 will be sized at 6.3″, which is just a tad bit larger than the 6.2″ on the S8+, so the devices will make for an interesting comparison.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will likely be Samsung’s most expensive mass consumer device, with a rumored price of €999 so far. Other specifications of the device include a top-of-the-line SoC like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835/Exynos 8895 and a healthy 6GBs of RAM.
What are your thoughts on the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and its dual rear camera setup? Will this setup be an outstanding feature, or yet another gimmick? Let us know in the comments below!
Sony has officially added the Xperia XZ Premium to its Open Devices program. Users of the latest (and the most expensive) Sony phone can now easily build AOSP for their devices.
If you need a refresher, Sony periodically adds some of its devices to the Open Device program. The company releases device trees, kernel trees, binaries and build instructions to compile AOSP for these devices, allowing users to experiment, learn and create. Xperia XZ Premium repository is now live on GitHub. You can also find a guide for compiling AOSP Nougat 7.1 for it.
In other news, the entire X family is close to having a fully working Linux 4.4 kernel. Currently, it’s available on the Xperia X Performance, Xperia XZ, Xperia XZ Premium, and Xperia XZs. Those devices have 4.4 kernel and binaries ready. Xperia X and Xperia X Compact have kernel 4.4 and binaries (without camera) and need more kernel work. Credits go to Sony’s Community Manager in Developer Relations, XDA Senior Recognized Developer jerpelea, and FreeXperia team supported by XDA Retired Recognized Developer kholk, who put a lot of effort to make it happen.
To build AOSP for Xperia XZ, make your way to the build guide for Android N. You can also jump straight to GitHub to review the code. All contributions are welcome and highly appreciated.
Users of Freedreno, the open-source graphics driver support for Adreno on Linux distributions, will be pleased to know that a new update has been released in the past week. Lead developer Rob Clark discussed many of the details in his blog, which highlight above all the support for Adreno 500 series GPUs. Among the highlights include compute shaders for OpenGL and OpenGL ES, improved performance and improved Linux distribution support.
The update has been a long time in the works and formalizes much of the 500 series support originally introduced into Freedreno back in November of last year. Mr. Clark’s blog also notes a “lot of interest in open source OpenCL support” but mentions several challenges remain in implementing this. Given the multiple attempts for Qualcomm to break into the server market as well as its upcoming release of Snapdragon powered devices utilizing Windows 10 ARM it makes sense that giving an option outside of the proprietary drivers would be desired and help offer similar performance from the open-source Freedreno. The blog also mentions a pending open attempt to improve performance for the 500 series GPUs using bandwidth compression, but is unsure if it will make the upcoming Mesa 17.2 release.
The XDA team has been working hard on the XDA Feed app to bring it to new devices. Today we are announcing a universal version of the app, now available on the Play store. If you have a device that previously wasn’t officially supported, now you can enjoy feed on any device. This new version will push mods, apps, themes and news that is compatible with all devices. This is the best way to stay up-to-date with all of the best content from the forums.
Find mods and apps that are made for all Android devices.
View descriptions and features of a specific mod, then download it right from feed.
Star your favorite posts from feed to access them later.
Choose exactly what type of content that you want to be notified about.
Find tons of fresh wallpapers and themes posted regularly.
Get a constant feed of the newest mods from the forums.
Filter the content in feed so that you’re only shown what you want to see.
Toggle settings to change the look and behavior of feed.
Another thing you can now do in Feed is suggest links so that the community can help with finding the best content from XDA. In this way we can better service the plethora of devices out there by letting the users suggest the best stuff. So pitch in and help! From the slide-out menu, tap Suggest Content, and just paste in a URL, add some details, and it’ll go into a queue for our Feed maintainers. Boom!
We’re just about halfway through 2017, and the Samsung Galaxy S8 still remains as one of the most attractive smartphones that money can buy. The S8’s Infinity Display truly is something to behold, but while Samsung may have knocked it out of the park with the S8’s screen, the company’s latest flagship still suffers from something that Samsung has struggled with for years – software lag and stutters.
Samsung completely overhauled the look of TouchWiz with the S8 and S8+, and while this custom take on Android is cleaner than it’s ever been before, it still suffers from stutters and framedrops when navigating through the UI.
One area where all of this is most noticeable is when swiping up to access the app drawer and then swiping back to the main home screen. Thankfully, according to the changelog for the most recent version of the Samsung TouchWiz Home launcher in the Play Store (6.1.09.2), Samsung has finally corrected this issue.
In addition to a new “information screen” and better readability for app names that show under their respective icons, the latest update to the TouchWiz launcher also, “Fixed the lag issue when swiping up and down to switch between the home and apps screens.”
While we do have to give Samsung credit for addressing and correcting some lag, hopefully this is somewhat of a wakeup call for the company that their bloated skin on top of Android is doing more harm than good. The Galaxy S8/S8+ are some of the most powerful Android devices on the market with a Snapdragon 835 processor and 4GB of RAM, and while this processing tech is more than capable of powering through Android without a hitch, Samsung’s TouchWiz still manages to cripple the end user experience.
Reviews on the Play Store as mostly positive for the new update to TouchWiz Home in regards to the fixing of the lag issue, so hopefully you’ll now notice that your S8 working the way it should have been when it was first released.
At Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2017, Qualcomm took the wraps off the Snapdragon 450 Mobile Platform, its latest lower-mid-range SoC. The new chipset brings number of improvements over its predecessor including an updated GPU, improved camera performance as well as faster modem.
Snapdragon 450
Unlike the Snapdragon 435, which was an incremental update over the Snapdragon 430, the Snapdragon 450 brings some much-needed improvements in key areas. With the Snapdragon 450, Qualcomm has finally brought the 14nm fabrication process to its mid-range SoC as well. We have already seen benefits of switching to the 14nm process in the chips like Snapdragon 625/626 and we can’t wait to see the improvements it will bring to the battery life on lower-mid range smartphones.
The Snapdragon 450 uses the same octa-core ARM Cortex-A53 implementation as the Snapdragon 435, with all eight A53 cores clocked at the 1.8GHz frequency. Qualcomm claims up to 25 percent increase in both CPU and GPU performance in the Snapdragon 450 compared to its predecessor. The gain in CPU performance comes in part from the bump in clock speed — 1.8GHz compared to the previous 1.4GHz. Despite the higher clock speed, the Snapdragon 450 still promises “up to four hours” of additional usage time over its predecessor, thanks to its much more efficient 14nm process.
SoC
Snapdragon 450
Snapdragon 435
Snapdragon 625
CPU
4x A53 @ 1.8GHz
4x A53 @ 1.8GHz
4x A53 @ 1.4GHz
4x A53 @ 1.4GHz
4x A53 @ 2.0GHz
4x A53 @ 2.0GHz
Memory
LPDDR3
LPDDR3
LPDDR3
GPU
Adreno 506
Adreno 505
Adreno 506
Encode/Decode
1080p
H.264 & HEVC
1080p
H.264 & HEVC
1080p
H.264 & HEVC
Camera & ISP
Dual ISP 13MP + 13MP (dual)
13MP + 13MP (dual)
21MP (single)
Dual ISP
8MP + 8MP (dual)
21MP (single)
Dual ISP
24MP
Modem
X9 LTE Cat. 7 300Mbps DL, 150Mbps UL
X9LTE Cat.7 300Mbps DL 100Mbps UL
X9 LTE Cat. 7 300Mbps DL 150Mbps UL
USB
USB 3.0 w/ QuickCharge 3.0
USB 2.0 w/ QuickCharge 3.0
USB 3.0 w/ QuickCharge 3.0
Fabrication Process
14nm
28nm LP
14nm
The GPU on the Snapdragon 450 also sees an update in the form of Adreno 506, with the company claiming up to 25 percent faster graphics rendering over the Snapdragon 435’s Adreno 505 GPU.
The Snapdragon 450 brings big improvements to the camera department as well. It now supports real-time Bokeh effects and also includes Qualcomm Hexagon DSP, which brings improved multimedia, camera and sensor processing while still using low power. Similar to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 450 supports a single camera up to 21MP. However, when used in dual camera setup, it can now handle 13MP + 13MP sensors, a jump from the Snapdragon 435’s 8MP + 8MP support. Finally, the video processor has also been improved and as a result, the Snapdragon 450 can now capture and playback video at up to 1080p60, up from 1080p30 on the Snapdragon 435. It’s nice to see that these features are making their way “downstream”, but that’s not all:
The Snapdragon 450 supports Quick Charge 3.0, which the company claims can charge a device from zero to 80 percent in just 35 minutes — though “can” if quite different from “will”, as the implementations we see fall short of that metric. The chipset also brings the support for the USB 3.0 standard, which in turn should dramatically speed up data transfer compared to Snapdragon 450 devices, should OEMs implement this feature properly.
As for connectivity, the Snapdragon 450 uses the same X9 LTE modem as its predecessor but it can now hit much faster upload speeds. The Snapdragon 450 includes X9 LTE modem and supports LTE Category 7 and Category 13 speeds of up to 300 Mbps and 150 Mbps for download and upload, respectively.
Qualcomm plans to begin commercial sampling of the Snapdragon in Q3 of this year, with the chip expected to arrive in devices by the end of 2017.
Snapdragon Wear 1200
Qualcomm announced a new wearable chipset called Snapdragon Wear 1200 at MWC Shanghai, which the company claims will help manufacturers build ultra-low-power wearable devices.
Qualcomm says the Wear 1200 will enable manufacturers to scale their devices for a whole new range of use cases as the new chip offers great efficiency and robust connectivity features. The goal with the Wear 1200 is to build wearables that are highly-efficient, always connected and cost-efficient, but not the most powerful.
The Snapdragon Wear 1200 comes with a single core ARM Cortex A7 single-core 1.3 GHz CPU, paired with a simple display controller. The main highlight of the Snapdragon Wear 1200, however, is its new modem which adds support for LTE Category M1 and Category NB1. The new modem enables support for ultra-low-power communication modes over above-mentioned LTE standards and it’s also the first to bring the support for 3GPP’s Low Power WAN technologies.
On the connectivity front, the Wear 1200 supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, voice over LTE and GPS.
The Wear 1200 also offers with integrated hardware-based security features like Qualcomm Secure Execution Environment, a hardware cryptographic engine, hardware random number generator and TrustZone to provide enhanced privacy and security protection.
While the Wear 1200 is clearly not designed for smartwatches, you can expect the new chip to power a wide range of wearable devices ranging from trackers for pets and elders to fitness bands.
The Snapdragon Wear 1200 is commercially available and shipping starting today.
Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors
Qualcomm is already a big name in the mobile semiconductor industry and now the company is planning to enter fingerprint scanner business as well. At MWC 2017, the US-based chipmaker announced the next generation ultrasonic fingerprint scanners with the introduction of Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors.
Most OEMs have historically used capacitive fingerprint scanners on their devices. However, if this new announcement from Qualcomm is anything to go by we are looking at some massive improvements on this front.
The new solution utilizes ultrasonic scanning and will enable smartphone OEMs to implement fingerprint sensor under the display, glass or metal. Qualcomm says its fingerprint sensors can detect heart rate and blood flow too, and can even work underwater.
Speaking of Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensor for Display, the scanner allows OEMs to implement the fingerprint scanner right under the display panel. However, the solution will only work on OLED panels, leaving LCD panels out of the luck. On the other hand, Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors for Glass and Metal makes it possible to implement a fingerprint scanner under the glass or metal and can scan through up to 800 µm of covered glass and up to 650 µm of aluminum.
Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors for Glass and Metal will be compatible with the Snapdragon 660 and 630 chipsets.
Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensor for Display will be available to OEMs for testing in the fourth quarter of 2017. On the other hand, Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors for Glass and Metal will be available to OEMs later this month with the sensors expected to arrive in commercial devices in the first half of 2018.
